


Never Again

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [99]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 05:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21470803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: It's been a month since they saw him and they can see what he's gone through in that time. Never again.
Relationships: Senju Hashirama/Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [99]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 9
Kudos: 167





	Never Again

When they found him it was in the dark. The way he flinched away from the light said more about the things he’d gone through in this forsaken place than the blood soaked in to his clothing did. Blood could belong to anyone. That flinch, the light of fear well-hidden in his eyes before he recognized their faces, that was something that neither of them wanted to see ever again.

Tobirama soothed him with gentle touches and an even gentler voice as Hashirama used his Mokuton to shatter the manacles holding him against the wall. As soon as he was free they lifted him together and took him away from the cage where they could only imagine what sort of hell he’d been going through in the month since he’d gone missing. Healing could wait until they put some distance between him and his new nightmares.

Never had any of them been so thankful for the range available to them with the Hiraishin markers as when they disappeared from one spot only to appear in another almost a full day’s travel away. Tobirama locked his knees so he would not waver and helped his brother settle Madara on to the soft futon in one of their own hidden safe houses. While the two of them wound together in a tight embrace Hashirama knelt to one side where he could begin healing as many of the visible wounds as possible, wishing with all his heart that he could so easily heal the wounds inside where no one but a Yamanaka might find them.

Hours passed before finally Madara spoke, rolling his head to croak out, “Water.”

Prepared for what they might find, Tobirama pulled a scroll out of his sleeve and unsealed several things, one of which included a bottle of water. He helped his partner to carefully sip the liquid bit by bit so as not to upset his stomach, thinner than the last time they had seen him, a clear sign of starvation.

“I’m okay,” Madara whispered once he’d had his fill of water.

“You’re not,” Hashirama whimpered, curling around his back and pressing in to the mass of his long unwashed hair.

“I am now. Here.” Safe between the two of them; his meaning was clear.

Brushing along the now too sharp lines of his jaw, Tobirama made sure that Madara looked in to his eyes before he said, “We missed you. We never stopped looking for you, not for a single moment.”

“Yeah. I figured. But I…they sealed my chakra…so I knew you wouldn’t be able to see me…”

He shivered and both of them held him a little tighter. To be without chakra was a horrible situation for any shinobi but to be completely helpless and for so long was especially terror inducing for a man like Madara, a man who had always been able to rely on himself, who was raised to believe there was one and only one person who could ever best him in a fight.

“We have you with us now,” Hashirama told him. Tobirama nodded.

“And we won’t ever let anything touch you again,” he agreed. “Never. We’ll tear the world apart to its very roots before we let anything like this happen again.”

They were both alarmed for a moment to see a single tear fall from Madara's eye but it was followed by a smile, heartbreakingly sad, yet his eyes were filled with the kind of joy he so rarely showed to them this freely.

“Thank you,” he whispered. And they understood.


End file.
